


an eye for real beauty

by kamote



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, So Very Family Fluff, he doesnt show up here but they talk abt him, on that note pardon my Pun Ass re: the title i couldnt resist, prerequisite headcanons: u better Believe camilla lost her eye in the concubine wars, the camilla/keaton is only Implied bc velouria is her kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 15:17:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13437549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamote/pseuds/kamote
Summary: Velouria wonders why her mother is so careful for her.(And Camilla learns what to love about something she once hated.)





	an eye for real beauty

The petals on this particular flower turn from vibrant rose to pale salmon as they flare out. Camilla eyes it for a drawn moment, ghosting her fingers on the bottom of the blossom. It would be a shame if she picked it and let it wilt right away, but now that she thinks, recalling just the last few years, the season for these blooms were soon to end anyway. 

Maybe just this once.

She tugs at the neck of the blossom, breaks it from the stem with a little snap, and, hearing heavy footsteps approaching, places it in her hair to free her hands. 

Alongside the thumping footfalls she can hear Velouria calling out to her. “Mom! Mom!” Her voice hitches and sways with every playful hop Marzia adds into her gait. Camilla swears they get along better than most siblings.

“Right here, sweetie.” Camilla half-crouches and warmly greets Velouria when she leaps into her arms. Her tail is wagging particularly fast today, which is a good sign, but still, “How did the treasure hunt go? Was Marzia helpful?”

Velouria nods. “She was great with digging! We made a huge pit of bones and rocks and branches. It’s secret, but I’m going to show you, of course!”

“I can’t wait.” Then they part from the hug and Camilla sees that oh, actually, she can wait, because there’s a trickle of blood running down her little girl’s face. Whatever face Camilla herself made at that seemed to scare her.

“Mom?” Velouria asks. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Honey, you’re bleeding,” Camilla says. “Marzia did you watch her carefully?”

Marzia grumbles noncommittally, even if her head turns away in what’s definitely an ‘Oopsie.’ Camilla wants her to look back and see the frown she’s shooting at her, but Velouria is quick to jump to defense.

“Mom, it’s fine! Marzia was busy moving the big rocks away for our treasure pit.” Velouria grabs Camilla’s hand and tugs eagerly. “Come with us, you’ll understand when you see it!”

“No, Velouria, dear, we need to get that covered right away. It won’t take even a minute, don’t worry. We can see the treasure pit then, okay? We’ll even fly there, if you’d like.”

Velouria’s eyes light up.  _“Flying?_ Okay!”

“Good girl. Come on, Marzia.”

* * *

Velouria winces sometimes when Camilla dabs at the wound with an ointment, and though she’s never been one to complain about medicine stings, Camilla thinks she’s been a little too quiet.

“Something on your mind, dear?” she asks.

Velouria hums, stays her tail, then speaks. “Why  _do_ you always treat my wounds so soon? Daddy doesn’t mind that much. He lets me keep playing even if my knees and elbows get scuffed up.”

Camilla chuckles. “Maybe it’s a wolfskin thing, but your father has different standards than I for how and when to handle wounds. He never seemed to mind them. In fact I believe he takes some injuries in stride.” Which is why she has to be extra careful for him, but that’s beside the topic.

“Well, they really aren’t that bad,” Velouria says. “Sure they hurt, but they heal anyway. You just have to wait.”

“It’s not so simple,” Camilla says. “Wait too long or treat them improperly and even the smallest cuts will scar.”

“So? Scars are cool! Just look at Daddy’s.”

The brightness that emerges in Velouria’s voice when she speaks of her father makes Camilla smile almost too often. “His are fine and charming. But scars can get big and ugly and messy.”

“I don’t believe you,” Velouria says.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I can’t imagine a big, ugly, messy scar.”

Camilla pauses. Hm. “What if I showed you one?”

Velouria’s ears perk up and her tail starts to sway. “Mom, you have a scar?”

“Certainly,” Camilla says. “Maybe even more than that. But are you sure you want to see? It might scare you.”

“I’m not scared,” Velouria says. “I wanna see. It’s gonna be cool.”

“If you say so.”

But Camilla isn’t half as excited to show these scars as Velouria is to see them. Little Velouria is still only eight, after all, even if she is a wolfskin.

Camilla moved her hand to her face and pushed her hair aside just a little, enough for just the reddish edges of the tissue to poke out into view. Then further back, where it began to warp and wrinkle. Somehow it didn’t appear as though Velouria could look away.

The attention turned Camilla a bit shy. “All right, that’s enough for now.”

Velouria pouted. “No fair, Mom! I wanna see the whole thing!”

“Maybe when you’re older, sweetie.”

“That’ll be  _forever,_  Mom! I can look at it now, really!”

Camilla shakes her head. “No, no, it wouldn’t do for a child to be afraid of her own mother’s face.”

“But I’m not gonna be scared!” At this point Velouria begins to rock back and forth a little. “In fact I’d never hate my mom no matter what she looks like, but if you don’t show me I might hate you today.”

Nearby, Marzia growls. It sounds like agreement, and Camilla frowns at her, wondering why her wyvern, more loyal than any of her maidservants and valets, would suddenly start taking her wolfskin daughter’s side.

_Goodness, Marzia, you were there,_ she thinks. Marzia was there before the scar was even a scar.

And she’s still there, Camilla supposes. Maybe that’s the point. Looking back, Marzia never once flinched at Camilla’s burnt, melted skin or looked away when her hair happened to fall out of place a bit too much. Even when Camilla was on one knee in the battlefield, losing blood in drips and streams and looking more like a decorated corpse than the Nohrian princess she set out to fight as, Marzia didn’t leave her for dead—she carried her somewhere to recover, sometimes even when Camilla, in the heat of battle, willed otherwise.

And, well, if she and Velouria had a taste for bones and dirt and rocks, maybe,  _maybe_  Velouria was smarter than Camilla gave her credit for, and was right about not minding. Besides, the soldiers that Camilla had frightened before were all human anyway, like Camilla, and unlike Velouria, who continues to tug at the arm Camilla is using to hide her face with.

“Please please  _please_ mom,” she says. “Even just for three seconds! Or even two! Please—“

“All right, all right,” Camilla says, putting a smile back on. “But remember, I warned you.”

Velouria’s ears and tail perk up. “I’m not scared!”

“I’m sure you aren’t. Now, are you ready?”

When Velouria nods, Camilla calms herself, evens her expression out so that the crinkles of smiling don’t warp the flesh any more than it already is, and pushes her hair out of her face. It takes another moment of bracing before she can bring herself to see how Velouria reacts.

And Velouria seems… rapt. The shine in her eyes isn’t the same as the one she has when she finds a neat little thing she wants to hide away, nor is it the one she has when her father comes to visit. It’s intense, yet gentle at the same time, but there’s little else about it Camilla can understand.

“Mom… It’s amazing,” Velouria whispers eventually, her every word spoken in earnest. “The shape and the colors… Can I ask how you got it?”

Camilla smiles. “When you learn what a Levin Sword is, I can give you all the gritty details, but for now… I can tell you that I was fighting for my family. My sisters and my brothers, years ago.”

“Protecting them?”

“Of course. The best I could.”

There’s the shine in her eyes again. Camilla doesn’t know what she’s done to deserve something like that.

“And I’m family, too, right? Would you do that for me and Daddy?”

Camilla’s laugh is shaky with emotion, one that seems to wrap tightly, warmly around her heart. She only has one other eye, and she knows the other two would do everything in  _their_ power so she wouldn’t have to, but… 

“For you both,” she says, “I’d choose blindness in a heartbeat.”

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah this is part of why i go for camilla!velouria; i mean the stats are killer too ofc but like, a good family??? is there Anything better?? no


End file.
